Welcome to the Born Today series, where each month I
highlight the most significant album releases of
said month, with a little help from the Rolling
Stone 500. Where info is available, the most recent
and highest fidelity versions (not always the same
thing) are listed. Since it's 2012, we'll be
celebrating the records that came out on the second
year of each decade. It's a good excuse to bust out
that 180-gram slab of vinyl you haven't even opened
yet.

NOTE: To test drive any of these albums I recommend
using the MOG streaming service, which has the
highest bit rate of any online music service at 320
kbps. MOG also allows unlimited downloads to any
Apple or Android device.

For the Roses, Joni Mitchell (day of month unknown,
1972)

I'm convinced that many of the endless, nameless,
boring singer-songwriters of the world would be
directed toward a more worthwhile profession, or
even become a worthwhile singer-songwriter, if they
studied at the school of Joni Mitchell for awhile
before even touching a guitar, piano, mandolin, or
flute. Just listen to the spellbinding first song,
"Banquet", in which her voice becomes a table, a
flock of birds, a newspaper. There are no session
musicians here with one eye on sheet music and the
other on the clock. There's just a compelling story,
with music to match. The album was remastered and
reissued on October 29, 2012, as part of the
Studio Albums 1968-1979 CD box set by Rhino.

The World Is A Ghetto, War (day of month unknown,
1972)

War's fifth album is their definitive statement.
Lengthy, politically heated jams with enough funk to
make you wish the whole world really was a ghetto.
Rhino reissued the album in 2008 as part of the CD
set Collector's Edition: The Eight Original.

Transformer, Lou Reed (November 8, 1972)

Even though Lou Reed had just wrapped up one of the
most consistently brilliant catalogs in rock history
with the Velvet Underground, he was still unknown
outside the freak circles. David Bowie thought he
deserved better. Bringing in his Spiders From Mars
guitarist, Mick Ronson, to co-produce, the trio made
a Velvets-worthy, primitive glam-pop album for
hipsters to listen to back in the day when hipsters
were actually cool. "Vicious" and "Andy's Chest"
rock, but slow-burners like "Perfect Day" and
"Satellite Of Love" continue to defy description. "Hangin' Round" has that peculiar robotic liquid
metal Les Paul sound that only Mick Ronson knows how
to get. And surely, "Walk On the Wild Side," with
it's dirge-like double bass drone and Lou's
indifferent tributes to wasted lost sheep who made
it to New York City and never found their way out,
deserves a spot at the top of the world's most
melancholy songs list. The album was very recently
reissued on 120-gram vinyl by Sony Legacy.

Mr. Excitement! Jackie Wilson (November 10, 1992)

He was called Mr. Excitement for a reason. Jackie
Wilson had teenagers fainting before the Beatles,
and he had record needles jumping out of the
grooves. His recordings were sharp, bright,
spacious, and energetic, as if he could picture the
audience in his mind when he was in front of the
microphone. The album was released as a three-disc
CD set in 1992 by Rhino.

Rage Against the Machine, Rage Against the Machine
(November 10, 1992)

Rage's debut captures the band at their white hot
scorching prime. Having come out in what still
seemed the late eighties, there was nothing eighties
about this album. It was always revolutionary to mix
rap and rock, as Rick Rubin already knew, but these
guys did it for a living. Tom Morello did such crazy
things with his guitar, including making it sound
like turntable scratching, that they had to add a
disclaimer clarifying that no synthesizers were used
on the album. Rage rereleased the album just days
ago as XX 20th Anniversary Edition. The
deluxe version contains two CDs, two DVDs and one
180-gram LP.

Thriller, Michael Jackson (November 30, 1982)

It's no big deal, it's just THRILLER, the
biggest selling album of all time, by far, having
more than double the sales, at over 100 million, of
its closest competitors, Back In Black by
AC/DC and Dark Side Of the Moon by Pink
Floyd. Why did such a cheese-ball eighties pop album
become so huge? Because it's good, that's why. And
when you can come up with a metaphysical,
psychological, anthropological, and biological
theory that provides a comprehensive model that
explains what "good" is, let me know. I'll be
listening to "Wanna Be Startin' Somethin" at top
volume on my Sennheisers, so you'll have to talk
loud. Bees like honey and human beings like Michael
Jackson. Yes, to Pink Floyd and AC/DC fans (myself
included), it may seem oversubscribed, but it's
still an album you can play at any wedding, bar
mitzvah, and Taliban rally and have people dancing
and smiling. And it has a cameo by Paul McCartney
and Eddie Van Halan. Does your album have Paul
McCartney and Eddie Van Halen? Didn't think so. The
mega-deluxe 25th anniversary CD came out in 2007
with extra tracks, but the 1999 SACD is the way to
go. Good luck finding it for less than $100.